Askwith Education Forum Centers Pandemic Recovery Success and the Road Ahead

Key insights and ideas about pandemic recovery in the American education system were the focus of the latest Askwith Education Forum on Wednesday evening.

Led by Professor Thomas Kane, faculty director of the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University (CEPR), the forum offered a glimpse at the ongoing challenges of COVID-19 pandemic learning loss and highlighted the successes some school districts have had in overcoming the disruption and crisis that followed.

“I’m sure many folks here tonight are sick of hearing about pandemic learning loss,” said Kane. “Tonight, I promise that by the end of my talk I will have torn off the rearview mirror and just focus on the road ahead and the things that we need to do next.”

The data presented during “From Recovery to Reform: The Education Recovery Scorecard” came from the Education Recovery Scorecard (ERS), a joint project of HGSE and The Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University which takes data from 43 states to measure math and reading abilities.

Key findings from the 2025 version of the ERS highlighted the importance of a common “yardstick” to measure these students as some states shift and “obfuscate” their standards, as well as ways to focus more on long-term issues such as chronic absenteeism.

While post-pandemic issues in education remain numerous and some districts and states have struggled more than others, Kane cautioned against pessimism and highlighted the importance of conveying to parents that these setbacks in literacy and math scores are serious and require intervention.

“We’ve got to be honest with parents about where kids are right now,” Kane said.  “So that they can sign up for summer learning or be concerned about student absences and help lower absent rates.”

A panel discussion followed Kane’s data presentation, which featured three superintendents from school districts which have seen significant recovery in learning levels since the pandemic. Moderated by CEPR executive director Christina Grant, formerly the State Superintendent of Education for the Washington, D.C. district, the panel featured Silvia Abbato (Union City Public Schools, New Jersey), Darin Brawley (Compton Unified School District, California), and Scott Muri (Superintendent Emeritus, Ector County Independent School District, Texas).

Grant focused the discussion on how their school districts each tackled significant issues with reforms and strong leadership that yielded positive results reflected in the Education Recovery Scorecard. The three superintendents offered actionable advice to other leaders and parents about how to embrace making “big swings” that yield real results for students.

You can watch the full Askwith Education Forum in the video above.